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news
Near Miss of the Day 903: Driver's punishment pass on cyclists for riding two-abreastNear Miss of the Day 903: Driver's punishment pass while blaring horn at two-abreast cyclists earns £300 fine and six penalty points
A motorist in Scotland landed themselves a £300 fine and six penalty points on their driving licence after blaring the horn at a pair of cyclists riding two-abreast before overtaking across solid double white lines and cutting back across one of the riders.
road.cc reader Stewart reported his camera footage to Police Scotland, the force's lack of reporting portal meaning he had to go through the lengthier process of providing officers a statement, but felt this case was sufficiently dangerous to be worth doing so.
The police agreed, fining the driver involved £300 and handing them six penalty points on their driving licence.
"Along with my partner we've had a spate of close passes and inconsiderate drivers of late," Stewart explained. "The attached video though shows exceptional behaviour from a driver. We were cycling along a rural road, wide and quiet when the incident happened. Excessive use of horn, crossing a solid white line and a close pass to finish."
As per Rule 213 of the Highway Code: "On narrow sections of road, on quiet roads or streets, at road junctions and in slower-moving traffic, cyclists may sometimes ride in the centre of the lane, rather than towards the side of the road. It can be safer for groups of cyclists to ride two abreast in these situations. Allow them to do so for their own safety, to ensure they can see and be seen."
While cyclists and other road users in England and Wales can submit video evidence of road traffic offences via Operation Snap and other police reporting portals, Scotland is yet to introduce one, potentially deterring riders from submitting footage given the increased time and inconvenience of reporting incidents to the police by other means.
Cycling UK has been at the forefront of campaigning for the introduction of such a portal to be introduced, and Police Scotland originally committed to piloting a reporting portal in March 2022, with support from the AA, RAC and numerous other organisations.
> Delays to introduction of online road safety portal putting cyclists "at risk", says Cycling UK
However, last autumn it was confirmed that the project had been cancelled as Minister for Justice Angela Constance argued: "A stand-alone portal is not the optimum route to create the capability for digital media submissions to be submitted by members of the public."
And while a Digital Evidence Sharing Capability is being piloted in Dundee ahead of expected national roll-out next year, it is not believed to be as strong or functional an option as the cancelled National Dashcam Safety Portal.
At the time of the NDSP's cancellation, Jim Densham from Cycling UK said: "The technology is there, so it's hard to understand why Police Scotland has refused to adopt it, when the case for its introduction is overwhelming: it will save them time and money, is widely supported by the public and road user groups and is used successfully everywhere else in Great Britain.
"Cancelling the NDSP and delaying until at least 2025, with a lesser replacement, puts responsible drivers, cyclists and pedestrians in Scotland at risk. Cycling UK is happy to work with the police to ensure that the people of Scotland receive the system that they were promised."
> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?
Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.
If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.
If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).
Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.
> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling
Dan is the road.cc news editor and joined in 2020 having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Dan has been at road.cc for four years and mainly writes news and tech articles as well as the occasional feature. He has hopefully kept you entertained on the live blog too.
Never fast enough to take things on the bike too seriously, when he's not working you'll find him exploring the south of England by two wheels at a leisurely weekend pace, or enjoying his favourite Scottish roads when visiting family. Sometimes he'll even load up the bags and ride up the whole way, he's a bit strange like that.
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28 comments
Just pure agression on show there. Saw the cyclists and immediately the red mist descended. Ridicolously, if they just waited 1 second more the double white lines finished and they could have past clearly in the empty lane and saved themselves £300 and 6 points. Anger management course would be appropriate for them also.
Stewart
One more question if I may.
What was this charged as, which is not in the article?
6 points is usually either Careless Driving or Failed to Identify Driver when required to do so, but in this case Careless seems ridiculous as the repeated horn intimidation and lunge at you with the vehicle are obviously both deliberate courses of action.
Charged with careless driving.
A question for Olbol156, if I may.
Could you explain yoru rationale for cycling 2 abreast there on the wide carriageway, please.
I note that the formation as shown in the video was more 'staggered' than side-by-side.
Was it deliberate to prevent the driver doing a "squeeze by" pass in your lane because of the approaching car on the other side and force him to wait and do a safe pass by crossing the white line after waiting, or were you perhaps riding socially and adjusting to single file to let him pass, and he just had an MGIF fit not wanting to delay for 2.32 seconds?
The only time I tend to ride in staggered formation would be if I am behind an inexperienced or twitchy cyclist and am deliberately preventing traffic doing a close pass on them. But overwhelmingly I ride on my own.
Well done on getting it through the system.
Thanks
Thanks for the question. EK Spinner's comment below explains why riding 2 abreast is advisable. We do it more now as a protection and to create a shorter 'vehicle' to ovetake. We find riding single file requires more space for cars to overtake at times so adapt according to the road.
Even riding on my own I would be out in primary on this stretch, if a road is wide enough to have a white line down the middle then the correct place to pass is in the next lane (it is just as wide as this one). In this instance highway designers have calculated that this is not safe in this area and have marked it that way therefore the driver is required to wait until it is safe to execute the pass safely (by crossing over the line)
Riding in at the left facilitates only one thing, a dangerous close pass.
I'd agree with a lot of that, but with the exception that I don't think road planners think about bicycles at all when choosing where to put solid white lines - I think they put them primarily (if not exclusively) in places where overtaking another motor vehicle would be unsafe
As such there are quite a few places where overtaking an e.g. 40mph motorist would be unsafe, so there is a solid white line - but overtaking a 15mph cyclist at the beginning of that stretch could be quite safe.
As such I would only tend to place centrally when I reached the point (e.g. approaching a bend) that it would be unsafe for driver to overtake me
the law does allow for crossing the line to overtake of cyclists and horse riders at <10mph (cyclist going at 10, not overtaking vehicle going at 10) maybe this could be changed for a slightly higher speed, like 15.
If visibility does not allow crossing the line in safety, then overtaking a cyclist there would be wrong, so cycling in secondary or even further left only accomodates a dangerous pass.
Was it pot luck of the pc who picked up the complaint or was it the area of the incident?
This was one of a number of incidents ive reported via 101 with officers attending at my home. They have all considered the evidence and offered to visit the driver and have a educational chat, if this is not received positively officers then proceed with attendance at a driver awareness course or in this case due to the severity straight to points and a fine. Stewart
First up. Thanks for your tenacity in reporting. I am confused though, when you mention the offer of a driver awareness course. Unless this has changed in the last year this option isn't available in Scotland. It's either the friendly chat and reminder of their responsibilities as a driver or the fine/day in court. Various legal bodies have been pressurising the Justice Directorate to introduce this option and consistently been stonewalled. Much in the same way as the reporting portal and presumed liability. All of which have been booted into the long grass. All of these, if and when implemented would actually take the pressure off the sheriff's courts as they would mean justice is being handed out at a different level except of course for the presumed. Though this would mean people would curtail their poor driving knowing that their insurance will take a hit if a claim was being met. It sometimes feel like PS and the Fiscal don't want to take ideas off other people
Thanks for the info, confused though as to what officers told me. I'll check, next time, as there's bound to be another incident.
No problems. I usually show up at the police station rather than try and arrange a time that suits me and the officers. Especially when they've cancelled due to a more serious crime occurring. More often than not I get the doesn't meet the Fiscal's guidelines so they pootle off and give the driver some earache. Even then it seems to be fleet cars and the company clams up about the driver.
Can you share the location of this police station? I assume that it's open and you can go in, and there will be staff there. None of the stations near me have this kind of service - it's like the bank branches except there's no online service either.
None of the stations near me have this kind of service - it's like the bank branches except there's no online service either
The only function of Garstang police station is as a bolt-hole in a relatively crime-free (except for MOT and VED evasion) area of the county, where they can hide away
Last time that I went into a bank branch, there was a gaggle of staff (3 or 4 maybe) just standing around to help customers which wasn't of much use to me as I only went in to use the automated cheque paying in machine.
I made the mistake of attending the police station to report a crime, and they just told me to do it over the phone.
This is a very good expamle of why riding in primary at double white lines makes sense, this driver slowed down and executed a (stupidly close abusive punishment) overtake at a reasonable speed, of both riders had been next to the verge they woul have cruised by at much higher speed without crossing the line and and been unaware they were in the wrong
well done for reporting it, and well done for prosecuting it too
I will maintain my position that we should call a "punishment pass" a "cowards pass" or "...AKA cowards pass" that is truly what it is and words count a lot towards changing behaviour
Good idea, but not strong enough, in my view.
impotent rage pass?
difficult to disagree, punishment pass does make it sound like the victim has done something wrong when that is very very rarely the case.
Could I suggest "sociopath pass", due to the sociapathic behaviour being exhibited.
Typically a sociapath will be prone to fits of anger and rage with impulsive and often illegal behaviour. They also lack empathy and will not feel remorse for the things that they have done.
This pretty much nails it for me.
I'm pretty sure you mean sociopath and spot on if you do!
Corrected, thanks!
psychopass
Excellent, this should now be the default term...
That's good and snappy.